I need not remind you, comrades of the American Railway Union, that our
order in the pursuit of the right was confronted with a storm of
opposition such as never beat upon a labor organization in all time. Its
brilliant victory on the Great Northern and its gallant championship of
the unorganized employes of the Union Pacific had aroused the opposition
of every railroad corporation in the land.
To crush the American Railway Union was the one tie that united them all
in the bonds of vengeance; it solidified the enemies of labor into one
great association, one organization which, by its fabulous wealth,
enabled it to bring into action resources aggregating billions of money
and every appliance that money could purchase. But in this supreme hour
the American Railway Union, undaunted, put forth its efforts to rescue
Pullman’s famine-cursed wage slaves from the grasp of an employer as
heartless as a stone, as remorseless as a savage and as unpitying as an
incarnate fiend. The battle fought in the interest of starving men,
women and children stands forth in the history of Labor’s struggles as
the great “Pullman Strike.” It was a battle on the part of the American
Railway Union fought for a cause as holy as ever aroused the courage of
brave men; it was a battle in which upon one side were men thrice armed
because their cause was just, but they fought against the combined power
of corporations which by the use of money could debauch justice, and, by
playing the part of incendiary, bring to their aid the military power of
the government, and this solidified mass of venality, venom and
vengeance constituted the foe against which the American Railway Union
fought Labor’s greatest battle for humanity.